Scenarios
One decision per page. Each starts from the reading and ends with an answer you can act on, including the cases where the honest answer is to wait a few hours.
The thresholds on these pages sit on the heat index rather than the air temperature, for one reason: humidity
decides whether sweating — or panting — still works. A humid 27°C is harder on a dog, a runner and an
eighty-year-old than a dry 32°C, and the thermometer cannot tell you that.
- Walking the dog Thresholds on the heat index, adjusted for breed and age, plus the surface check and what to do instead when the answer is no.
- Hottest part of the day Why the peak lags noon, why the heat index peaks later than the temperature, and how to choose a window instead of a threshold.
- Babies and heat Why infants heat faster, practical thresholds for going out, and why a pram is hotter than the air around it.
- Older adults Why the safe number is lower, which medications lower it further, and what to check by phone when someone lives alone.
- Pavement and paws How far above the air asphalt actually runs, when it becomes a burn risk, and the hand test that beats any estimate.
- Running in heat Why dew point beats temperature for predicting a hard session, what to change first, and where the line is for calling it off.
- Construction sites A day's sequence with the trigger numbers attached, written for whoever is actually running the site.
- Too hot to work? Three jurisdictions, no maximum temperature in any of them — and what each requires instead.
- Roofing and asphalt heat safety Essential heat safety guide for commercial roofers, road pavers, and asphalt workers operating on extreme heat-absorbing surfaces under the sun.
- Youth sports heat safety Actionable heat safety guide for high school athletic directors, coaches, and youth sports leagues using Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) thresholds.